Still lacking her rights at work: the treatment of women politicians in the Australian parliament and print news media

Abstract

Anne Summers’ 2012 speech entitled ‘Her Rights at Work’ examined the ‘sexist and discriminatory treatment of Australia’s first female prime minister’, Julia Gillard, by both the Opposition and a section of the broader public. This paper will argue that parliament is still all too often a sexist and discriminatory place of work for women politicians and that parliamentary sexism and discrimination is often exacerbated by the news media’s coverage of incidents. While providing a broader background, the paper will focus on several key case studies of parliamentary events and subsequent media coverage, including: Gillard’s ‘Misogyny speech’; Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s ‘slut-shaming’; and former Liberal MP Julia Banks’ criticism of parliament’s sexism.